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Along with excitement, there is also a certain anxiety that comes when your favorite new band releases their second album. Especially when their previous album kicked ass and anticipation for the new release has been running high. Before clicking the play button you can only take a deep breath and think to yourself “Please. Don’t. Blow. It.”

The Henry Millers’ first album Daisieswas so fresh. I loved the album and appreciated what The Henry Millers were doing with their music. You only want a good band to get even better. So when theyannounced the release of their album Posies, I prayed that Posies would blow the petals off Daisies.

I listened to “Posies” for the first time through their music video (which was directed by a Y&P favorite, Robert Kolodny) and oh man, was it every bit what I expected and then some! Originally I fell for the band’s songwriting and over-all Beatnik vibe. Now, with Posies dropping this summer, I’m anticipating an album that projects the band’s fresh air of confidence, sticks to their guns, and shows their musical capabilities (and then some).

The theme of love has been expressed in music for ages. Love and music, simply put, may be the most beautiful couple of all time. But there are lots of other things that compliment each other well; take Mike Gordon and Leo Kottke’s song, “With” that lists some nice couplings:

I’ll be with you like keys and locks, like heads and hats, and feet and socks
I’ll be with you near and far, like Groucho goes with his cigar
I’ll be with you like hot and fire, like sneakers hanging on a telephone wire
I’ll be with you like green and go, like Cleveland goes with Ohio…

But you know what I would change the lyrics to in the last line?

I’ll be with you like green and go, like fashion goes with rock n’ roll!

Like love and music, fashion and music have been a notorious duo. Now let’s make another list: David Bowie & Iman, Heidi Klum & Seal, Jerry Hall & Mick Jagger, Pete Doherty & Kate Moss…

There is just something magnetic when two beautiful, creative people get together. Especially, when it’s a known fact (okay, stereotype) that creative people are moody and broody, deeply passionate and wildly expressive; so, when people harboring such spirits connect, it is always intriguing to see how their relationship impacts their creative work.

Now if that’s not a scenario for a match made in rock n’ roll heaven, I don’t know what is! Much like Penny Lane, NYC fashion designer, Christina Mannino (DEIVIE), met rocker boyfriend, Mike Corbett (Midnight Spin) backstage after he played CMJ. “My friend Jillian was friends with the band [Midnight Spin]” Christina tells Y&P, “we hung out with them after the show and took a van to Brooklyn for some late night snacks.” Mike told us that “at first, I thought she was too attractive to be interested in our band,” but once he found out Christina “actually liked rock music” and wasn’t just a Band Aid, that was the cherry on top of his sundae.

Mike and Christina moved in together in 2013, leading us back to our initial question, how do creative couples make it work? Y&P asked Christina and Mike some questions about how they live in NYC together as a young couple.

[Y&P] What was a “must-have” when you were apartment hunting?
[Christina] LIGHT! Large windows.
[Mike] Yeah, light was big. Also a fridge.

Who kills it and who fills it?
[Mike] I kill any spiders because Christina is afraid of them. Christina fills me up with food because I can’t cook.

Who had to get rid of the most “stuff” upon moving in together?
[Mike] Neither of us. We don’t back down.
[Christina] #truth…but Mike seems to forget that I had to get rid of this really beautiful antique princess chair! It was so Marie Antoinette! #RIPprincesschair

To win “the war” what battles do you sometimes have to lose?
[Mike] The battles. And your dignity.

What do you find inspiring about one another?
[Christina] When Mike performs! He has no inhibitions at all!
[Mike] Christina’s energy is contagious. She is always ready to work and it rubs off on me.

What famous couple (living or dead) would you like to double date with?
[Mike] Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln
[Christina] Def Stephanie Seymour and Axl Rose!

If you can wake up super-early, that’s the time to head out to see the temples before the crowds arrive; however, I like to have a coffee and light breakfast before taking a tuk-tuk to Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom. Upon arriving, you will step out of your tuk-tuk and head to the ticket counter. Day passes are $20 USD but you can purchase longer passes as well. You don’t need to bring a photograph of yourself, they use their own camera. (You do need printed passport photos upon entering Cambodia for your visa).

For ladies visiting the temples: dress in clothing that’s not revealing. Some temples will not allow women to enter certain areas if they are not dressed properly (i.e. shorts, skirts, tank tops). Sneakers are also a must because of the rough paths, hiking and walking up the steps of temples (some steps are only a few inches wide!)

If you meet a reliable tuk-tuk driver, you can ask him if he’d like to drive you to your destinations the next day. On average, it costs about $20 USD to hire for a full day (and gratuity is always more than appreciated). **Note: when riding in tuk-tuks, hold onto your bags, motorcycle thieves are known to grab them and ride off.

At night, head out to Pub Street for dinner, drinks and take in the nightlife, fish massages, street foods, and the markets.

US currency (especially singles) is good to have on hand when going to markets and temples (you should always give alms when lighting incense at temples). As any smart traveler knows, don’t bring all of your cash out with you and beware of pickpockets.

When children approach you and ask for money (which they will), do what you want, but know that in most situations, the money is going straight to the adult behind this street scam.

On a lighter note, it’s a good idea to pack some baby wipes in your backpack when visiting the temples. There are restrooms (and “squatters”) along the way, but toilet paper may be hard to come by so it’s better to be prepared.

Nadja Spiegelman, creator of Curated Craigslist, at her desk. Photo by Laura Foxgrover.

We all know a New York minute is shorter than most – almost as short as young New Yorkers are on cash. But bargain-hunting takes precious time, so what’s a frugal borough-dweller to do? Enter Curated Craigslist. The “procrastination project” of a New York creative currently writing in Paris, Curated Craigslist tackles the sprawling plain text monster and wrestles it into a sleek, high-design tumblr. Since such great things seem to spring from her procrastination, I decided to keep Nadja Spiegelman away from her writing for a few minutes longer. Consider it a public service, and get to know the woman behind the laptop below (be sure to let us know if you become her first custom curation client!).

Home town: NYC, Soho

Dream town: Constant teleportation between New York and Paris

I heard a rumor you’re not in NYC right now – is Curated Craigslist your way of pining for The City? Yes, absolutely! Looking at craigslist is a way of feeling New York’s pulse.

So if not in NYC, where are you now and what are you doing? I’m living in Paris, working on a book about my mother, grandmother and great-grandmother (their adolescence, the changeable nature of memory, and what it means to tell stories about the past). Also, eating a lot of cheese.

Best/favorite thing you’ve found on craigslist so far. I’ve seen a lot of beautiful things I would love to own like this drafting desk and this chair – but my favorite things to come across are the very strange like this antique toilet and this clock table.

What is it about Craigslist? Craigslist is a wonderful place to find a great deal — but it also connects you to the city in a way that I love. You go into people’s homes, meet the people who’ve owned the items before you. I bought my desk from a young man in Bay Ridge whose grandmother had just died — he was staying in her apartment long enough to sell off her furniture. We ended up having coffee and he told me a bit about his grandmother. My desk was hers for over 50 years, and now I think of her when I use it. My dresser came from a woman around the corner who turned out be a world class poker champion — she was selling all her furniture dirt cheap and moving to Las Vegas. I love having a sense of the lived experience of the objects around me.

I already love Curated Craiglist – but pretend I don’t. Why should I? You shouldn’t! I mean, you certainly don’t have to. I made it with myself and my friends in mind. When I was in my early-20s, in my first apartment, this whole new category of desire opened up. Suddenly, there were so many things to want — couches and rugs and lamps and a nice duvet cover. But of course, immediately afterwards you realize how insanely expensive those things can be, and my friends and I have always been a bit broke. So on my site, I try to mostly post items that are a very good value — if you have a $700 budget for a coffee table, you might as well buy a new one.

Do you take custom curation clients?
I don’t know what a custom curation client would be but it sounds like something that might pay money. In that case, definitely.

You’ve been given a bunch of new titles lately – Craigslist’s best rummager, furniture obsessive, Neo-like…what’s your favorite so far? It’s all gone straight to my head! It’s very very distracting. I’m having a hard time not constantly googling my own name. Refinery29 called me a “blessed genius” and I certainly wouldn’t complain if people only called me Blessed Genius from now on.

Are you a furniture obsessive? Well, yes and no. I look at design blogs often, but my interest is more direct and practical. I think there’s something deadening about a society where we define ourselves solely by our consumer choices. But there’s still something very profound about the act of creating your own home. If clothing and personal style is a way of projecting an identity to the world, then maybe decorating your home is a way of creating a private, personal identity for yourself. For a long time now, I’ve used clothing as way of growing into and out of more transient identities, and for me creating a nice living room is a way of becoming rooted in a stable more adult self.

So how’s that book coming? shhhhh

Any previous procrastination projects we should know about? Haha I love the term “procrastination project.” I hope that takes off. I can easily imagine people at New York dinner parties asking each other about their current procrastination projects. But no, all of my previous procrastination has not been very goal-oriented.

Best advice you’ve ever received. From my mother – “you need to know what you want before you can get it.” My mother is slightly intimidating. Even her friends call her Super Woman. She wakes up at 3 am to fix our plumbing, and then works not one but two high-powered jobs. I once saw her get a couch through a door frame that was just way too narrow by pushing against it and saying “Couch, go in!” It was physically impossible, she must have bent space-time. When she wants something to happen, it happens. And a large part of her power comes from the force of her will — she simply refuses to believe that things won’t go her way. Her advice was useful in teaching me to channel that – because before you can get to that stage, you need to know, very clearly, what it is that you want. And from my father, a deep trust in my own subconscious. He taught me to frame questions in my mind before falling asleep and to allow my mind to work on them over night. And he taught me that my mind might do many things I wasn’t even quite aware of – protect me from difficult realizations until i was ready to deal with them, or work through problems even when I didn’t know I’d been thinking about them. I wonder if sometimes I use that to justify procrastinating… But I think it was useful. When I was outlining my book, I spent a lot of time drawing to-scale floor plans and placing furniture in them. I think I was triggering my mind to think spatially, and in the end it really did help me with my outline.

Write a haiku about Craigslist. antique rocking chair well-loved, in good condition please take it away Nadja remains committed to NYC and doesn’t plan to expand to other cities – but she “would be very flattered if people began their own versions elsewhere.” You heard her, America. Go forth and curate!

It is winter in downtown Pasadena and the already quaint streets are made more charming by the glow of antique lamp posts and hand crafted decorations that announce the season from storefront windows. A place that feels calmer than most Los Angeles shopping destinations despite the large number of consumers that it attracts, carefully selected corporate retailers are nestled amongst boutiques. Amidst the craft shops, home decorating emporiums, sports stores, and restaurants, a newcomer has arrived on North Holly Street. Her storefront is completely glass, showcasing the at once hip and classic selection of goodies inside. She is not pushy or loud, but attracts attention with a certain regality and gentleness of taste. Her name is Sailubju and if the homemade cookies and lemonade so often stationed by the front door don’t entice you, the vintage pastels and fitted contemporaries behind her doors will.

Owner Faith Gabriel, a twenty-something with the same conservative edge that Sailubjumanages to balance, recalls being 11 years old when her love affair with fashion began; “…my school began to make us wear uniforms. Oddly enough, I fell in love with those blue plaid skirts and pan ruffled white tops. I started to get really creative with them and realized, ‘Hey! Fashion is fun!’”. A job as a counter supervisor at Rampage served as a crash course in women’s retail and led to the then 18 year old Faith’s Aha! moment: “I can do this!”.

Sailubju‘s name is coined from Faith’s attempts at pronouncing “I love you” as a child, and exudes the same charm and honesty as does its backstory. A walk through the cozy store feels like visiting a favorite aunt’s house, the one who doesn’t ask a list of robotic questions and lets you have two spoonful’s of cookie dough before the eggs are baked. Only a few of each item is placed on the floor at a time; the displays are neat, the walkways clear, the whole aesthetic stimulating without being overwhelming. The vintage off-white wallpaper is teeming with traced periwinkle flowers and a white iPad serves as register and DJ, feeding easy contemporary pop to multiple speakers tucked away in ceiling corners. Light denim, deep velvets, lace and mesh, cotton and wool, there is no fabric or color pallet that Sailubju neglects, and yet there’s never a doubt that you’ve walked into a cohesive universe: a fifty second trip into the store is enough to get you thinking that’s so Sailubju once back to scanning street style outside of her doors. Faith’s sister Hazel has a penchant for “now” culture and gathers many of the cropped, high waisted, and fitted pieces, while Faith has an eye for vintage, bringing in the rare treasures that have circled out of their era and back into perfect wearability.

Sailubju is Faith’s lovechild but her family certainly doesn’t mind helping with care-taking. Mother, sister, cousins; family not only plays a role in helping to run the physical store, but also sends designs from abroad (like Faith’s Texas stationed cousin and aspiring designer, R’Bonney Nola, whose velvet dress has spent time in the shop’s front window). The comfort of home and feminine bonds give their energy to Sailubju – casting a special aura around Pasadena’s new beacon.I hope that this treasure chest is recognized by the locals for what it is, something with staying power, a dream worth supporting, and as each of my trips has proved thus far, a fantastic new outfit.

The folks at Y&P can’t resist multi-player bluegrass bands and Acoustics Anonymousis currently feeding our addiction. The band (Drew Jameson, Neil Salsich, Sam Niehaus, John Hussung, and Gerard Erker) came together in 2012 in St. Louis, MO, over “a love of picking, singing and grinning” (as well as a shared interest in paintings by Jerry Garcia and Pablo Picasso).

AA bridges the gap between groove and grass (grass is groovy) by “injecting gravity and soul into everything they play, coating it all with a shimmering layer of harmonies.” Their sound is funky and danceable, gritty and honest.

AA’s plucks, twangs, and bluesy-voiced harmonies show the style of American bluegrass-jam, dusted with their personal flavor.

When performing live, Acoustics Anonymous plays sets including original songs peppered with covers which they execute with brilliance, making you miss that particular band (and that’s how a cover song should be).

Get to know our favorite midwest band in our exclusive interview and be sure to download their single “Honest & Wild” off of their debut album (also titled Honest & Wild) that dropped December 28th!

Any pre-show routines?
Drew: Gerard and I have some really great phone chats. I am religious with my Jame-o on the rocks, and also removing my shoes (G’s in on that one too).

Neil: We can be neurotic about the set list, so there’s a fair amount of discussion concerning those. We generally drink a beer and just relish in the excitement that comes with getting ready to take the stage.

John: Three Bs…Beer, Bathroom, Breath.

Gerard: Drew and I often have a pre-show pump up phone call, looking forward to our truest passion, which is playing music with good friends in front of a live audience. For “bigger” shows, we like to take 1 shot of Jameson Irish whiskey before getting up on stage.

Who inspires you?
Drew: Batman.
John: Conan O’Brien. I have a lot of respect for people who succeed, never give up, and never lose their sense of silliness.
Gerard: Tom Sawyer.

Best advice you’ve received?
Drew: The best things in life aren’t things.
Neil: No one really knows what you need except you.
John: Don’t be cynical.
Gerard: Be happy when good things come to others.

Best advice you’ve given?
Drew: Fuck the money.
Neil: No one really knows what you need except you.

Who would you like to go on tour with?
John: The Von Trapp Family singers would be a delightful bunch to tour with.

Any resolutions for 2013?
Neil: Get some great out-of-town shows with my bands as possible. Diversify my playing, and my life. Record an album. See as much Phish as I can. Run a marathon. And eat, drink, and be merry!
John: Enter the world of Jazz…

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